The April showers we did not have in April arrived as torrents through much of May – along with hail, sleet, thunderstorms and deep-frozen gusts. And then a few days ago winter stopped and spring happened: wall to wall sunshine and a green explosion. Seedling plants that had been languishing chillily doubled in leaf size overnight. The crop in Townsend Meadow behind the house that I’d thought was wheat quickly grew three feet and turned into barley. The lime tree canopies on the nearby Linden Walk went from pinched and niggardly to ebullient and blousy.
Suddenly all seems right with world, although this only works if you avoid all forms of mainstream media. And to that end, I have been spending a lot of time deciphering the last of wishes of long-ago ancestors, words I find I can believe. It’s also been a time, between storms, to prepare the ground at the allotment, plant out peas and erect runner bean canes, and finally make up my mind as to where all the tomato plants are going. In fact last night I thought it was at last safe to plant the outdoor ones along the south facing wall of the old privies, though I did hang a bit of fleece over the canes in case the plants felt too shocked. The only problem with that was during the night the rat that lives under the shed tried to hijack the fleece for its nest. Drat and double drat. I was hoping it had gone away. It looks like some tomato shielding will be required later on.
So: onwards and upwards. June tomorrow. In the meantime, here was May:
Tish Farrell 
Ouf…a brutal May
It certainly was.
Made up for it this weekend!
Indeed it has!
It has been a huge and most welcome change. But then every now and then that chilly little breeze pops up. Hot tomorrow though.
Lots of watering to do later!
Isn’t it amazing what rain and sun can do. ? Those cloud pictures are grand.
There have been some truly magnificent skies, and especially when the air was very cold.
Beautiful photos. Wish you could send some of that rain out to California.
It’s gone and left us now. Hopefully on its way in your direction.
Sounds like you’ve got the rats of NIMH!
They are getting above themselves, definitely.
Great captures of your month of May, Tish. We could also do with some of your excess rain here in Florida.
Would love to share, Sylvia, but it’s gone and disappeared for now. Hope we’re not in for a dry summer.
Your skies look like ours of the past few weeks, so I can imagine the weather you’ve had.
I hate rats with a passion, and since watching a heart-breaking documentary about their impact on NZ’s native fauna, my loathing has only grown.
Hm. Rats as the other master race. I don’t like them either. I especially don’t like their nibbling holes in my tomatoes which the shed one did last year.
That is such a frighteningly accurate description. NZ is aiming to be predator-free by 2050; a big ambition, but I’m heartened by how many wonderful people are volunteering to get involved in their own areas.
Gosh! That sounds like a tremendous project. Rats will live anywhere. Am admiring the effort.
Thanks Tish; it’s a huge undertaking, but we’re losing our native flora and fauna at such alarming rates we have to do something very soon.
Such charming images, and I do enjoy the way you write; both make me want to stay awhile longer…
Thank you for that very nice comment, Laura. So happy to have you linger longer 🙂
Those clouds are lovely! And they’ve done their worst, Tish. Flaming June? 🙂 🙂
Hot today (for us that is) and some fine days ahead it seems 🙂
Yay! 🤣🤣
And what a May it has been! Nice ending though.
Lovely ending – and hopefully some more to come.
We had that spring explosion in the middle of May and then it all turned around and we got a full week of freezing, drenching rain. I think tomorrow will be warmer again. It almost got warm today. The sun was out for a few minutes, but the Duke came home wet, so it must be raining again. Tomorrow is June. We are hoping for spring to come back but I’m betting we’ll go directly from very cold nasty, windy, rainy to very hot and very humid. It’s hard to know. But I’m pretty sure we are due for that hot soupy weather we get in June and the beginning of July with cooling later in the summer.
Your greenery looks wonderful. I think our plants got confused and some of them have just given up hope. It’s good to see that other places have weird weather and stranger seasons too.
All sorts of weather everywhere. Wishing you benign unsoupy days.
A great photo journal of a rather strange May, weather-wise 🙂 It honestly felt more like March didn’t it? And then suddenly, just in time for the holiday weekend, we seem to have switched from early spring to mid summer, overnight! All very odd, but the sunshine is welcome. Although having said that, you’ve found some beautiful images in the raindrops on the blossoms and the towering rain clouds.
Thanks, Sarah. It was a very odd month all round. And now we have summer in Shropshire, and lots of watering at the allotment. Phew!
Summer in London too, but an odd one with so few foreign tourists!
Well May is gone, long live June. (I understand May was quite rotten just about everywhere in Europe.) Hope all is well, Memsahib?
All is fine here, thanks, Brian. Lots of gardening getting done.
I’m sure you’re enjoying it. Take care Tish.
🙂 🙂 🙂
Glorious photos. 😀 … Summer has arrived here … yesterday a tolerable 25C, today a blistering 32C, and rising. 😦
It was that wretched polar vortex giving us all the chilling weather. Hopefully it’s gone back where it belongs. In fact I read there are record amounts of ice in parts of the Arctic. Think we could do without blistering temps though.
Wow! Hail & sleet in May!!!! I am so glad your seedlings survived. How exciting planning and planting in your allotment is!
May was really very hair-raising for gardeners – lots of shivering (and battered) seedlings, but it looks like things are coming good with some warmth. And all of a sudden!
It’s really crazy weather!
I am sorry to hear that you have a rodent too, Tish. Wow, that green looks like it is about to take over. You had better keep the mower and the secateurs inside so you can clip your way out.
Yes, the green surge has been tremendous. Everything’s growing much taller than usual too.
These are just lovely. Those wooded green lanes! My goodness! When we eventually come for tea, you will be ”forced” to take us for a walk there.
🙂
Not far to go either – only across the road to the Linden Field. . All the lime trees were planted around 1860 by the town’s doctor. He must have envisaged that one day it would make a very lovely promenading space. The railway line would have originally gone beside it, so it’s very much quieter and less smutty these days.
Can one pick the limes?
Not that kind of lime, Ark 😉
Yep, it got there in the end… pity everything in life isn’t as reliable as the seasons. Great looking cloud btw.
Indeed, the seasons may dodge about a bit – they always have – but the only reliability now is in the ongoing follow-the-un-science-imperative that has gripped the western world. It’s all very wearing.